Persecution is not being made to feel mildly uncomfortable… I am always very uneasy when people sometimes in this country or the United States talk about persecution of Christians or rather believers… I think we are made to feel uncomfortable at times. We’re made to feel as if we’re idiots – perish the thought! But that kind of level of not being taken very seriously or being made fun of; I mean for goodness sake, grow up. You have to earn respect if you want to be taken seriously in society. But don’t confuse it with the systematic brutality and often murderous hostility which means that every morning you get up wondering if you and your children are going to make it through the day. That is different, it’s real. It’s not quite what we’re facing in Western society.

Mr. Miller proceeds to recount the same things to which Williams is referring. As if to make the former archbishop’s point, he says:

Unfortunately, [Williams] fails to adequately account for [the] posture of governments against traditional Christian beliefs. The governments and secularists of the West have done far more than merely make light of religion. They have declared the religious worldview to either be flat wrong, or something that should be confined to the private life of individuals.

Far from being made to keep everything we do within the confines of our sacred spaces, Western Christians are very free – yes, very – to pray, praise and protest in the manner which we choose. Of course, we can’t display our nativity scenes at city hall or infringe on the rights of other religious traditions – especially those who choose no religious tradition. However, as I told Mr. Miller via Twitter:

“Purging religion from the public square” isn’t persecution. It’s civics and ecumenism. It happens in democracy. @TheIRD@BrianKenMiller